Jetview Electronics Ltd.

As human eye can see object under 1 lux illumination ( full moon night ). CCD sensor normally will see better or as good as human eye in the range of 0.1 ~3 lux and are 3 to 10 times more sensitive then CMOS sensor.

CMOS sensor's sensitivity are normally in the range of 6 to 15 lux. CMOS sensor have 10 times more fix pattern noise then CCD sensor. Fixed pattern noise is the kind of noise that stay on screen as if there is a patterned. As CMOS sensor will become useless under 10 lux. All camera for serious application are using CCD sensor. CMOS sensor are normally using on toy or very low end home security.

There 2 exception. CMOS sensor can be made very big and have same sensitivity as CCD sensor. CMOS sensor are very fast , it is 10 ~100 times faster then CCD sensor, so it is very good for special application such as high ens DSC camera ( Cannon D-30 ) or fast frame camera.

CMOS sensor can have all the logic and control circuit be build on the same silicon wafer dice so as to make the camera simple and easy to handle. Hence CMOS camera can be very small in size.

CMOS camera though consume same or more power then CCD sensor but CMOS sensor use less peripheral circuit such as CDS, TG and DSP circuit, so the total power consumption is 1/2 to 1/4 less then a CCD camera on same size.

There is only one exception that Mintron C series camera is using only 12V/65 mA power which is almost same as CMOS camera but having much better image quality. C series camera using 0.35um 3.3v DSP hence consume very small power ( 54C0,54C1,54C2, 54C1,54C5,54C6) . All other CCD camera making by other company are consuming 12V/150~300mA, hence is 2 to 4 times more then CMOS camera that is on 5~12v and 35~70 mA

Ironically, although CCD stand for "Charge Couple Device" and CMOS stand for "Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon" but actually neither CCD nor CMOS have anything to do with image sensing. The actuarial sensor is a device called "Photo Diode" Both CCD sensor and CMOS sensor ( as so called ), are actually using same kind of sensor called Photo diode. Photo diode is a P N junction diode that will convert photon of the light that is bombing the junction into proportional amount of electron. The amount of electron are them calculated and read as voltage of signal. The more the light that entering the photo diode the more the electron generated and the higher the voltage out put from the sensor.

CCD stand for "Charge Couple Device" , CCD actually is only the technology to store the electron charge and the method to move these charge out of photo sensor in and organized way.

CMOS stand for "Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon" . CMOS actually is only a technology to make transistor on silicon wafer, and have no further meaning. Sensor being called CMOS sensor was a convenient way to discriminate it from CCD sensor and have nothing to do with the real ways that the sensor handling image.

CMOS sensor convert electron generated by photo diode into voltage signal immediately without complicate process. hence it is much faster. This good point makes CMOS sensor very useful for fast frame camera, the frame speed can be as high as 400 ~2000 frame/sec. This point makes it very good for high speed moving object survey. however due to lack of good fast speed DSP there are little high speed camera on the market and are normally very expensive $3000 ~ 300,000 per unit. Mintron makes 75 frame CCD camera which is 3 times faster then PAL TV standard on 25 frame/sec. and it is the physical limit for a CCD device.

2. What is Super HAD CCD camera? What are the strengths and weakness about it? Do Alpha cameras use Super HAD CCD?

All Alpha family C, D, F ,G ,H ,V .W series cameras of MINTRON are come with Super HAD CCD , or optionally have Ex-view CCD.

More: SONY CCD cameras sold in the market nowadays are almost all using Super HAD technology. Super HAD provides 2 times of better sensitivity and 6 db better smear rejection ratio than the formal traditional type of CCD. Two micro lenses on top of each photo diode are able to collect more photon from incoming light than the old CCD made by SONY and any other maker.

Panasonic believes that its that its new 37 series is as good as SONY's Super HAD, and its 39 series is also as good as SONY EX-View on visible light zone.

Alpha B and K series cameras now are using mainly Panasonic CCD for the best color rendering and good dynamic range.

Compared to Super HAD, Sony Ex-view CCD Do have 4 times of better sensitivity on near infrared zone ( 800~ 900 nm). However, if the users use it properly, it will be excellent for night vision. If not properly, it will became a draw back because the infrared will cause color distortion and blurred image due to basic physics that infrared focuses on deeper location and cause hologram image especially if the certain lenses are used.

3. What is super wide dynamic?

Super wide dynamic is a feature to allow a camera to see an image under very strong contract.

MINTRON's Jaguar 63W1 has 280:1 dynamic range which is 90 times more than legacy cameras that have only 3:1 dynamic range. Natural lighting can range from 120,000 lux to 0.00035 lux under star light night. While a camera sees from an indoor room to an outdoor scenery, the indoor illumination will be 100 lux and outdoor scenery will be 10,000 lux. The contract is 10,000/100 = 100:1. This kind of contract is easy for humans' eyes to adjust because humans' eyes can handle 1000: 1 contract level. However, a legacy CCTV camera has a difficulty to deal with it. A legacy camera is with only 3:1 contract capability. It can only choose to use 1/60 sec. shutter speed to provide a good exposure for indoor objects, but the outdoor image will be washed out (all white). By another way ,the camera can also choose to use 1/6000 sec to provide good exposure to optimize for outdoor image, but after that, the indoor image will be dark out (all black). This is a long time deli mar until 63W1 was invented.

MINTRON's Jaguar 63W1 has 280:1 super wide dynamic range that is able to solve the Deli mar all in once now. Jaguar can run 60 frame/second that is twice of the speed higher than legacy cameras, 25/30 frame/sec.

Jaguar 63W1, for example, takes indoor image in 1/100 sec. to optimize the first exposure for indoor objects and then takes the second exposure in 1/10000 second to optimize the exposure for outdoor image. The two images then merge and create a perfect image as if superior humans' eyes can naturally see that are created by God.

4. What is "STAR LIGHT" camera?

The "Star Light" series of CCD video cameras is one of the many unique lines of cameras that MINTRON has developed for special-purpose applications. By incorporating frame integration technology, Star Light cameras offer an unsurpassed level of low-light performance, allowing image formation in near total darkness.

In these cameras, photons are accumulated by the CCD for periods 2 to 128 times longer (1-2 seconds) than normal maximum exposure times for video CCD cameras (1/60 or 1/50 second). As a result, the minimum illumination needed by the camera to produce an usable image is decreased by a factor of 2 to 128 times.

Using our Star Light cameras with frame integration technology, users can see color images under starlight illumination conditions (0.0035 Lux) and black&white images under cloudy starlight conditions (0.0002 Lux). The scattered background light prevalent in cities (i.e. light pollution) is adequate for good colour exposures.

Star Light cameras can also extend the effective range of supplementary infrared illumination used to generate "night-time" images. Using frame integration exposures, the effective range of an infrared source can be extended 128 times - so, for example, an infrared projection lamp designed to illuminate an area 10 m. away will have its range extended to 1280 m. immediately if using a Star Light camera.

The maximum exposure (frame integration rate) is fixed at four times (4x) for the "F" series models (63F0/ 63F1/62F1) and 64 times (64x) for the 6318/ 6368/ 6268 models. The "V" series models (63V0/63V1/62V1) are capable of 2 ~128 times (2x -128x) frame integration periods, programmable by the user through an on-screen display (OSD) menu. The frame integration exposure capability of the "V" series cameras can be further extended to 256x; 512x; or 1024x (or more) by special order. Note that these special extended exposure times also require a special cooling system to bring the CCD chip temperature down to -10C to decrease the dark current and prevent "pixelation."

5. What is Minimum illumination? What is Sensitivity ? What does 0.0001 lux stands for.

Minimum illumination is a way to measure the sensitivity of a camera. In another word It's mean, how dark the camera can still see usable image. However because there is no ISO standard to regulate, so each major CCD maker have their own way of testing sensitivity of CCD. However a camera specified as ( 1 lux, F10 ) can be exactly same as the a camera specified as ( 0.01 lux F1.0 ) !!! surprise ? Why ?

More : The most common way to measure minimum illumination is called target illumination. Target illumination means how much light is received by the plan where CCD surface is located. Although the definition is clear however there are three major parameter will dramatically changed the result of the measurement. There are :

F stop (F stop of the lenses used for the camera under test)
Color temperature (Color temperature of the light source. i.e. spectrum contain)
IRE (IRE level of the video amplitude)
Reflection ratio (Reflection ratio of the object and it's background)

F stop
F stop is the way to measure the capability of a lenses to collect light. a good lens can collect more light and throw the concentrated ray to CCD sensor. A lens of F1.4 will collect 2 times more light then a F 2.0 lenses. in another word a F1.0 lenses will collect 100 times more light then a F 10 lenses. So it is important to specify the F stop of the lenses used during the test, or not the reading will be useless.

Color temperature
Color temperature is the way to express the spectrum contain of the light source. An light source of 3200k contain mostly spectrum around 600nm to 900nm, and a light source of 9300k contain mostly spectrum around 300 to 500 nm. hence different color temperature will totally altered the testing result. A light source with 600 nm wave length will generate 10 times more electron the a light source with 900 nm wave length light source on a typical CCD sensor, hence is 10 time more sensitive. This is why that color temperature must be specified to make the reading meaningful.

IRE level
Maximum amplitude of video output from a CCD camera normally should be set at 100 IRE or 700mV. A video in 100 IRE means that it will fully drive a monitor to expressed best image with best brightness and contrast. a video with 50IRE means it have only half of the contrast. and 30 IRE mean 30% of original amplitude or 210mV. It is generally acceptable that 30 IRE is a minimum value for a meaningful image. A regular camera will have noise level on 10 IRE while AGC kick up to max gain, hence will provide 3:1 or 10dB S/N ratio for a barley acceptable image.

A reading measured under 10 IRE will be 10 times better then measuring read under 100 IRE. so a reading without defining IRE level is actually useless.

Reflection ratio
Reflection ratio of the object and it's background will significantly distort the measurement. An object with 100% reflection rate will generate 100 times more light on target plane then an object with 1% reflection rate.

How do people normally set these parameter:
Most reputable company will measure sensitivity of their camera under following criteria.

F stop F1.4

Color temperature 5600k

Video level 30 IRE

Reflection ratio 80%

So a honest camera make will specify the minimum illumination as
3 lux ( F1.4 5600K 30 IRE 80% )

IF any parameter is omitted the reading can be 10 to 1000 time different.

For example The same camera can be specify very differently
1 lux ( F1.4 5600K 30 IRE 80% )
0.001 ( F 0.75 5600K 10 IRE 1% )

This is why some irresponsible make will specify their Ex-view camera actually measured 1 lux ( F1.4 5600K 30 IRE 80% ) but be specified as 0.0001 lux .

Now you know why !!! because they were measured under
( F 0.75 5600K 10 IRE 0.1% )

Curiously want to know if what ( F 0.75 5600K 10 IRE 0.1% ) stands for ?

F 0.75 is the kind of lenses will cost you $30,000 or more to get , and it is not essentially not available for CCTV industry.

10 IRE video is below noise level, so nothing will be seen.

0.1% reflective ratio can be created by putting a tiny white line in front of a very dark background.